


Not Even the Gods Above

by jekisawrites



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-14 00:52:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4543860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jekisawrites/pseuds/jekisawrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A one shot that follows Piper and Niall throughout different universes until they finally get their happily ever after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Even the Gods Above

     When Niall first sees her, her hair is a mess. It’s greasy, and knotty, and looks like she hasn’t brushed it in a week. That’s the first thing he notices about her. The second is that she looks an absolute mess. Her bag is half open, books and pens and everything else threatening to come tumbling out at a moment’s notice. Her shoes are untied, and he finds himself worrying over whether or not she’ll trip over the laces, which he decided is simply ridiculous because he doesn’t even know her. There are paint stains on her skirt, and her white tee is half untucked and there’s a blob of _something_ on the shoulder. He thinks it may be paint, but who even knows at this point. Freckles are sprinkled over the bridge of her nose, and he sees more on her shoulders where her shirt is falling off. She’s mumbling something under her breath, and she’s a mess – a chaotic beautiful kind of mess – and he doesn’t realize that he’s been staring until it’s too late.  
     “Yes?”  
     Niall snaps out of his daze, “What?”  
     “Uh,” She seems just as caught off guard as he does, and he almost laughs. “You’re— You’re kind of staring? Can I help you with something? If not, I really need you to move because I’m late for my train and you’re kind of in my way.”  
     Oh, _right._ He’s at the train station waiting to pick up his girlfriend. “Oh, uh, it’s just that…” He points to her shoulder and when the strange, chaotic, hurricane of a girl looks at her shoulder, she simply laughs.  
     “Of fucking course. Of _course_ my cat would cough up a hairball on my clean shirt. Because what else would happen today?”  
     She continues to mutter to herself about her damn cat, all the while trying to wipe off the hairball. And Niall doesn’t know whether he should be laughing or be grossed out.  
     “Anyway,” She steps around him, because he’s an idiot and doesn’t think to move out of her way, “Thanks for that. It would’ve been awful for me to go to this damn meeting with that there.” She’s walking backwards as she talks to him now, and Niall is more worried about her tripping on her laces now than he was earlier. But he doesn’t get a chance to say anything because she’s waving goodbye and sprinting the rest of the way to her train.  
     The first time he sees her in this world, is also the last.

&&

     In this world, Niall doesn’t see her at a train station. He sees her in line for the X-Factor, and it’s actually her that sees him first. She’s in line with her cousin, who has been waiting for an opportunity like this his entire life (his life has only been seventeen years, so don’t let his dramatics fool you). No one else would go, and Alton begged and begged, until Piper finally relented and agreed to go with him. But now he’s talking to the lad in front of them and ignoring her completely, and well, Piper is bored out of her mind.  
     That’s when she sees him. He’s surround by what could only be his mom and some other family members. He looks nervous, and keeps nibbling at the hangnail on his thumb. She wants to tell him what a bad habit that is for him, and it only takes watching him doing it two more times before she finally speaks up.  
     “That’s a horrible habit, ya know.”  
     He looks startled at her blunt comment, and for a moment all he can do is stare at her. But then he’s smiling, something like a laugh escaping his chapped lips, and it seems to be draining all the nervousness out of him. “Me mum says the same thing.”  
     “Mums always know best. You should listen to her.”  
     He’s about to say something, but he glances down and narrows his eyes at her shoes. “You should probably tie those. Wouldn’t want to trip and bruise that face of yours.”  
     And Piper has never been happier to have her dark complexion than in that moment as it hid the blush that went to her cheeks. “These never stay tied, so what’s the point?”  
     Suddenly the boy in front of her bends down, and Piper is startled and is about to take a step back or ask if he’s okay or something but then he’s reaching out and tying her shoes, and Piper is speechless. After a moment, he stands back up with a shit eating grin plastered on that pale face of his, and Piper suddenly feels a surge of fondness for the boy who obviously dyes his hair blond and she isn’t sure how to handle that feeling.  
     “There. That should do the trick. I’m the knot master.”  
     The statement is just so ridiculous, that Pipe finds herself laughing. Then they’re both laughing and then they’re talking and talking and talking until they have to go separate ways. Piper wishes him luck, and he wishes her cousin luck and tells Piper he’ll see her later.  
     Piper smiles the rest of the day, and hopes he means it. But months go by, and she slowly realizes that even if he did mean it, the odds of her seeing Niall again are definitely not in her favor. At least in person.  
     His face is plastered everywhere in the city, along with his other four band mates. And she’s happy for him, she is, but she finds herself wishing for more chance to talk to the boy with the bad habit of chewing his thumbnail when he’s nervous.  
     And the boy who has the bad habit of chewing his thumbnail when he’s nervous finds himself thinking of the girl with crazy hair and a thousand freckles every time he picks up the old habit. He sometimes thinks they could have had something special in a different world, and wonders if under different circumstances he would have seen her again. But he doesn’t, and over the course of a few years, she becomes another blurred face in a crowd that’s screaming his name.

&&

     In this world, they don’t meet in Ireland. They don’t see each other at all until fate happens to put them in the same little coffee shop in the middle of London. She’s sitting at a corner table, her computer humming quietly in front of her. She has paint splattered on her legs and shorts. There’s a stain of something on her shoulder. Her face and shoulders are sprinkled with freckles, her hair a mess.  
     He’s at a table by the window. Notes and study cards spread out in front of him and his best mate. The two of them came here to study, but not much studying has been done. His friend keeps making bad jokes. Horrible jokes, actually, but Niall laughs anyway. Then Zayn and Louis came in, and they had just gotten new tattoos and Harry just had to talk to them about it. And Liam, their personal barista and roommate, threatened to kick them all out if they don’t stop blocking the walkway and, “for the love of God, please stop talking so loud!”  
     And Niall laughs at that as he stands up to go get another cup of coffee (a medium latte with two sugars to be specific), when he’s suddenly crashing into something and various items are crashing down on the floor around his feet. It takes him a moment, but eventually the clattering stops and he hears Liam groan from behind the counter and he manages to focus on the petite girl in front of him.  
     “Sorry ‘bout that, love.” She still looks a little dazed, and he gently places a hand on her shoulder and gives it a soft squeeze. “Wasn’t watching where I was goin’. You a’right?”  
     Niall nearly shits himself when the girl in front of him starts to tear up, and then her lip is wobbling and finally she’s full out crying right in front of him. He glances around at his friends, but they’re too preoccupied with their tattoos and Liam just shrugs in a way that says, “This is your mess, mate. You clean it up.” And Niall swears he didn’t run into her that hard.  
     “Um,” He’s not entirely sure what to do with his hands, or at all if he’s completely honest. He finally settles with awkwardly patting her shoulder. “I didn’t hurt ya, did I?”  
     He’s fairly certain he didn’t, but seeing her crying has him doubting himself.  
     She sniffs and furiously tries to wipe the tears out of her eyes, but then she’s chuckling and Niall thinks he’s going to have whiplash. “I’m so sorry. You probably think that I’m half crazy.”  
      _Well…_  
     “No, not at all. You’re okay, then?” He notices then that he’s still patting her shoulder, and quickly pulls his hand away.  
     “Oh, I’m fine. It’s just…” She takes another deep breath and wipes her nose on the back of her hand. “You’re Irish.”  
     He laughs at that. Because, yeah he is, and it’s so completely obvious he’s not sure why she sees the need to point it out. Especially since he almost immediately noticed she was Irish, too.  
     “Yeah, yeah I am.” He chuckles and starts to pick up everything that fell out of her bag. He hands her things while she quickly stuffs them back in her bag. When they’re finished, she still doesn’t zip the bag up. “You’re stuff might not fall out if you zip that bag up.”  
     She shrugs, a little hopelessly, a little sad. “Zipper broke.”  
     He wants to ask why she doesn’t just buy a new bag, but he doesn’t. He has a sense that she’ll have an excuse for that as well. He’s ushering her to the counter when he asks, “So what made me being Irish make you breakdown?” He looks at Liam and nods, telling his friend to make him the same drink. He looks down at the girl and raises his eyebrows. “Want a drink? It’s the least I can do since I made you cry.”  
     He acts like he doesn’t see the blush creep up on her cheeks.  
     “Yeah, just a tea will be fine.”  
     Liam nods, “Same as before?”  
     “Yeah, thank you.”  
     The two walk down the counter to wait for their drinks, and Niall leans against the counter and crosses his arms over his chest. But he’s smiling, and that makes her smile too.  
     “I’m just feeling a little homesick is all,” She starts to say in response to his earlier question. “I’m stressed with finals coming up and graduation and everything else going on. And I really miss my family. Then I heard you talking and it was just like…” She shrugs and let’s her voice trail off.  
     “Ah, a bit of homesickness then? Been having that a bit meself, if I’m honest.” He leans towards her, as if he’s about to share some big secret. “There’s an easy fix, though. There’s a pub not too far from here. Reminds me of home. S’almost like yer back in Ireland.”  
     Liam hands them their drinks, and he’s smirking like he knows what Niall’s doing. But Niall doesn’t even know what Niall is doing, so he shrugs it off.  
     “You should go tonight. There’s this Irish lad, rather good lookin’ mind you, and he’s got a gig there tonight.”  
     “He’s talking about himself. He’s an idiot.” Louis calls out from where Niall had been sitting moments ago.  
     This time, Niall blushes and his friends laugh.  
     The girl ignores his idiotic friends. “I’d love to come. Just give me the address.”  
     Niall doesn’t waste any time grabbing a napkin and a pen from behind the counter – and ignoring Liam’s glare in the process – and writing down the address. She accepts it with a smile, and then she says she’s got to go or else she’ll be late for class. And she’s almost out the door when, “Wait!”  
     Niall is acutely aware of everyone watching him, but he does his best to ignore it. “What’s your name?”  
     “Piper.”  
     “Nice to meet you, Piper. I’m Niall.”  
     She laughs, and then walks out the door.  
     Niall smiles the rest of the day, and only smiles even wider when she shows up at the pub that night. And then they somehow keep running into each other, and Niall finds himself falling in love with the girl who came barreling into his life like a hurricane.  
     But then she graduates and goes back to Dublin, and he stays in London. After all, he has one more year to finish. But even then, he stays. He’s got Harry and Liam and Louis and Zayn, even if Zayn does plan on moving on to “bigger and better things” later on in life. He’s got his mates, and he can’t bare the thought of leaving them behind, even if it was to go home and chase after the girl who stole his heart the first night he met her. And so he stays.  
     Two years later is when he logs onto Facebook and sees that Piper is engaged. His heart breaks only a little, but then when he flies to Dublin for the wedding, his heart breaks a lot. And he’s drunk with Piper’s cousin, Alton when he calls Harry, his voice raspy and hoarse as he tries to hold back his tears.  
     His best friend doesn’t say much, just listens and eventually convinces Niall to go to bed. “Otherwise,” Harry reasons, “You’ll be miserable on your flight back in the morning. And we can’t have a grumpy Niall for the party tomorrow night.”  
     And that brings a whole different load of emotions, because yeah, the party. Zayn got signed and would be taken away from him, too. But he pretends to be okay for Harry’s sake, and promises to drink plenty of water before hanging up.  
     Niall doesn’t see Piper again after that. A few weeks later, he goes as far as deleting her from Facebook.

&&

     He’s backstage when he sees her for the first time in this world. Louis is sipping tea, and talking to Dan about maybe adding a new song to the next show. He’s been trying to make the fans happy ever since Zayn left, which Niall doesn’t really blame him. They owe their fans a lot. Liam’s on the phone, and by the way he is very obviously avoiding Louis while on the phone, Niall can safely assume it’s Zayn on the other line. He smiles, and mouths a hello to Liam who nods and relays the message to their friend. It’s when he’s looking around for Harry when he sees her.  
     His eyes first land on Harry, who smiles in his direction, and then Niall sees the lad that’s with Harry. He looks familiar, but can’t quite place where he’s seen the lad before. He’s about to wave when he sees the girl behind them. It’s the hair that really pulls his attention. It’s curly and frizzy and everywhere. And the freckles. And, well, he would’ve still been taking in her appearance, but suddenly she disappears. Niall leans forward, and a little too late he realizes that she tripped on something and fell face first.  
     Harry reaches her first, and then the other lad. And Niall stays where he is, trying to hold back a laugh. Once she gains her balance, she glares at him.  
     “Thanks for making sure I was okay.” It’s her Irish accent that makes him smirk, not the way she’s trying so hard to look fierce, but only comes out looking like a slightly disheveled puppy. Niall swears it.  
     He shrugs, “Ya seem fine.” He glances down then, and notices her laces are untied. “Besides, it’s ya own fault ya can’t tie ya own shoes.”  
     She looks like she’s about to bite his head off, but before she gets the chance, Niall takes three long stride and kneels in front of her. “Thankfully, yer at the right place. I’m the knot master.” He starts tying one shoe before she can step away, “Once I get ahold of these bad boys, they won’t be tripping ya anymore.”  
     Once he finishes, he stands back up with a smirk plastered to his face. “I’m Niall by the way.”  
     “Yeah, I’m aware.” She rolls her eyes, but then the lad that had been with harry nudges her. She sighs, “I’m Piper and this is my cousin Alton. He’s a big fan of yours.”  
     Niall smiles widens when he shakes Alton’s hand. “Nice to meet ya. Musician?”  
     Alton nods, but its Piper who speaks up. “We were actually at the same X-Factor audition as you, but didn’t get in. He’s great, though. Those judges didn’t know what they were talking about.”  
     Niall laughs at that, “Well, I would like to think they knew a little something since they did let me through.”  
     Piper narrows her eyes at him, but otherwise ignores Niall. Niall finds her act a little amusing and finds himself smiling at her more than he should. Thankfully, she doesn’t seem to notice. And if she does, she’s damn good at acting like she doesn’t even realize he’s in the same room as him.  
     He continues talking to Alton until he’s forced to get ready for the show. And then, he quickly invites the two of them to go out with him and the rest of the lads after the show. He doesn’t expect them to show up, but when they do he feels his cheeks start to get sore from smiling so much. He finds himself being pulled towards Piper, and somehow always finds himself within an arm’s reach of her. They dance around each other all night, until Louis has enough and pushes Niall towards her with a, “For fucks sake Niall! Must I do everything myself?”  
     And they’re both blushing when Niall stumbles the rest of the way to Piper, and he thinks that Louis meant for him to dance with her or buy a drink or something, but Niall just motions towards a quiet booth off to the side and is relieved when Piper nods.  
     They spend the rest of the night in that booth, heads close together and smiles on their faces. They talk until their friends pull them away demanding that it’s time to go home and get a few hours sleep before they have to get on the plane to the next show. Niall’s a little taken aback by how badly he doesn’t want to leave Piper, and he’s speechless when she reaches into his pocket to grab his phone to put in her number. But he allows it to happen with a smile on his face.  
     Later, when he’s on the bus and the other lads are snoring peacefully, he pulls out his phone and scrolls through his contacts until he finds Piper with a heart-eyed cat and a beer emoji by her name. He chuckles at that, and then sends her a quick message. “Just so she has my number,” he tells himself as he closes his eyes and falls asleep.

     They don’t see each other for almost a year after that. But they text. They text and call and tweet and Skype. They’re almost always sending each other messages, even if they know the other is asleep because of the time difference. Niall almost always calls her after each show, still sweaty and tired from the show, and she almost always answers, typically tired because it’s late in Dublin. But knowing she still wants to talk to him puts a smile on Niall’s face.  
     It’s a beautiful spring day when they both somehow manage to be in London at the same time. Even more miraculous is that Niall has free time. Thanks to Louis being a dad, they all have more free time than they’re used to. He wasn’t for the long break when they first mentioned it, but seeing Piper walk through the small coffee shop’s door makes him think that maybe it was worth it after all.  
     He’s sitting at a corner booth in the back, away from most of the crowds. He has his latte in front of him, and a tea for Piper. When she sees him (or the tea, he isn’t sure which), her face splits into a smile and that makes Niall’s heart feel like it’s going to explode.  
     “Is this low-key enough for you, Popstar?”  
     Niall rolls his eyes at the nickname, and pushes the tea towards her. “Shut up and drink your tea.”  
     She does what he says, but smiles around the brim of her cup. “So how’re you?”  
     Niall shrugs, “Bored our of my damn mind. I haven’t had this much free time in ages.”  
     “You miss it?”  
     He shrugs, “Think I miss being on the road more, to be honest.”  
     She laughs at that. Her head tilt back, hair falling out of the messy bun, and freckles shining in the sunlight. “You just miss all those girls screaming for you.”  
     He laughs with her at that, “Shut up, Piper. You’re just jealous.”  
     “Yeah, definitely jealous that those girls get to see you on stage, but here I am sitting across from you and drinking my tea. I think I have the better end.” She takes another sip of her tea then, “Besides, I think I have the better deal. I don’t have to deal with you ninety percent of the time because you’re gone.”  
      He knows she’s joking, but something in her tone makes it sound a little more serious than a joke. Like she wishes he wasn’t gone ninety percent of the time, and that makes his chest ache. But he tries to ignore it, and they continue talking until their drinks have long gone cold.  
     They’re packing up their things and getting ready to leave when Niall convinces himself that it’s now or never.  
     “Piper?”  
     She looks up from stuffing her phone in her bag that’s splattered in paint and that won’t zip close. She looks a little worried at his change in tone, “Yeah?”  
     “I was thinking,” Niall rubs that back of his neck, not entirely sure this is the best idea, “What’re you doing Friday night?”  
     She smiles then, and it’s so fond and so sweet and so full of this emotion that Niall can’t quite place, that he almost forgets to breathe, “Why? Is Niall Horan of One Direction asking me out on a date?”  
     He blushes then, and he instantly wishes he could hide his blush as easily as Piper could hide hers. “Maybe. Only if you’d agree.”  
     She laughs at that, “Honestly? I kind of thought this was a date.”  
     He smiles, “Nah, this was a _I-can’t-go-any-longer-without-seeing-Piper-and-I-need-to-ask-her-something-in-person_ type of thing.”  
     “In that case, I’m most definitely free on Friday.”


End file.
